title: Phosphorus retention in a constructed wetland system used to treat dairy wastewater.
abstract: The aim of this study was to develop an input/output mass balance to predict phosphorus retention in a five pond constructed wetland system (CWS) at Greenmount Farm, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The mass balance was created using 14-months of flow data collected at inflow and outflow points on a weekly basis. Balance outputs were correlated with meteorological parameters, such as daily air temperature and hydrological flow, recorded daily onsite. The mass balance showed that phosphorus retention within the system exceeded phosphorus release, illustrating the success of this CWS to remove nutrients from agricultural effluent from a dairy farm. The last pond, pond 5, showed the greatest relative retention of 86%. Comparison of retention and mean air temperature highlighted a striking difference in trends between up-gradient and down-gradient ponds, with up-gradient ponds 1 and 2 displaying a positive quadratic relationship and down-gradient ponds 3 through 5 displaying a negative quadratic relationship.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Engineering Research Centre, School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, BT9 5AG Northern Ireland, UK. aoneill47@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Foy
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Phillips
mesh_terms: D003612:Dairying; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000379:methods*; D007220:Industrial Waste; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014872:Water Movements; D053833:Wetlands
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste; D010758:Phosphorus